Suggestion: revamp merchants with more items

HeroOfNone

When was the last time some of you bought anything from a generic merchant? Maybe @ZOS can give some stats and prove me wrong? In general though, I feel merchants are very under utilized in the game and some need a makeover. About the only ones I hear used are specialized vendors that might sell soul gems, a rune or two, food, crafting mats, and some chests with random equipment (Though rarely). These lack flair, and most of us have no reason to look in them, which makes it feel like there are a ton of useless NPCs that are begging for some life put into them.

Add in unique variety to their permanent stock
the first step is to get some lore appropriate racial styles and social standing items sold by merchants. These would include:
- armor
- recipes
- RP clothing

So a khajiit may sell off hats with the ears, an argonian may sell off a saw toothed sword, an peasant seller may only sell rags for clothing, and an imperial may only sell imperial recipes

Less is more in exploration
Despite the convience, some of us actually like to have to search and rummage vendors. Adding in more items should be limited to only a few permanent items you can come back for again and again.

Limited Temporary Items
once a day the items in all merchant stalls will sell off a variety of items in limited quantity based on the level of the area and what folks sell to them. most of these items will be regular price, but some can be mixed in as 'clearance'; giving deals that are only a few gold above the player's resell price. These would include things like:
- enchanting runes
- enchanting supplies
- recipes
- ingredients
- alchemy components
- armor (including sets)
- fishing bait (different types)
- improvement mats (up to blue)
- jewelry
- rp clothing
- blue motifs

if we put only a few temporary items per vendor, (3-5) we won't be hurting much but giving folks reasons to stop by every now and then to pick something up.

Random Traits
In addition to the permanent and temporary items, the armor traits can be randomly set each day. So come today you may find exploration, come tomorrow it could be infused, or something else. This will let players research some items if they are willing to spend or if they can't find someone to sell them a trait.

the randomness grab bags
Certain merchants should have an random open bag of stuff that offers a variety of items. These can range from rare materials you'd get from a heavy sacrifice or chest, including treasure maps located closest to that merchant (useful for those going for the achievement). These should be moderately priced.


So, what do you folks think? What way would you improve merchants while hopefully not destroying the economy at the same time?

Savetti

Ha, yea. I don't think I have EVER purchased anything from an NPC vendor. I only sell junk and repair. That is really their only use.... Kinda sad actually

Nestor

I like the Merchants they way they are. They don't interfere with the true game economy which is players selling to players. They serve their purpose, which is a source of gold in exchange for Vendor Trash and Repairs.

Could they sell more? Yes. Do I want them to sell more? Probably not.

Sylvyr

I don't know if we'll see this stuff on vendors but a good list for crown store.

idk

I have added this to my list of things that should be changed in the game. Of the 1253 changes in the most this is 1251. Honestly don't see much need to making generic merchants slightly more interesting as nothing in the above suggestions would get me to visit the merchants.

HeroOfNone

Nestor wrote: »

I like the Merchants they way they are. They don't interfere with the true game economy which is players selling to players. They serve their purpose, which is a source of gold in exchange for Vendor Trash and Repairs.

Could they sell more? Yes. Do I want them to sell more? Probably not.

Doubt we'd destroy the economy with items that would be 3 to 4 times the price we'd pay each other.

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

I have added this to my list of things that should be changed in the game. Of the 1253 changes in the most this is 1251. Honestly don't see much need to making generic merchants slightly more interesting as nothing in the above suggestions would get me to visit the merchants.

How so? Set items are still one of the most useful sets, these items are random and require searching, and this enables you an alternative to get materials. Hell, with provisioning it actually HELPS so now you can find some of those recipes they request in writs.